Forum:Should we use the new Discussions feature?
Since I joined this wiki well after its founding, there's a lot I don't know about its history. I wonder what people here think about the possibility of using the new Discussions feature on the Girl Genius wiki at some point in the future. I am not sure why the old wiki-style forums are still in use here instead of the newer (but now obsolete, since they are being replaced with the new Discussions feature) discussion-style forums. I assume that the discussion-style forums were never activated on this wiki because, once that feature is turned on, any wiki user can create a new forum (discussion) and it was feared that this would get out of hand. Can anyone provide some background? While I am used to participating in discussions in the wiki-style forums now, I found them quite daunting at first and they are still quite awkward to use. I'm sure many users just give up, rather trying to participate in wiki-style forum discussions. If we started to use the new Discussions feature, it might attract more people to this wiki. -- William Ansley (talk) 19:39, January 11, 2017 (UTC) : I don't remember any discussion of the discussion-style forums. Even with the wiki style I believe anyone can create a new discussion so I don't think that makes a difference. : I have no objection to trying the new Discussions, but from articles on it the feature appears to be a work in progress with many missing features. My concerns are: :* Discussions don't show up in Recent Changes which I use to monitor discussions. :* Will we be able to easily link discussions to the chronology and comic as we do now. : Argadi (talk) 01:44, January 12, 2017 (UTC) :: I agree we should wait until the new Discussions feature is more finished before adopting it. The situation as I understand it is: ::* Eventually, we may not have a choice in whether the new Discussions feature is activated on the Girl Genius wiki. Wikia currently plans to roll it out to all wikis eventually and is not planning to provide an option to turn it off, although Wikia doesn't completely rule out the possibility of adding that option in the future. ::* The Girl Genius wiki will be one of the last ones to get the new Discussions feature because Wikia is prioritizing adding it to those wikis that already use the discussion-style forums, and converting them to the new version. ::* The wiki-style forums will not be replaced or removed when the new Discussions feature is added to the GG wiki, so we can keep on using them if the new feature turns out not to meet our needs. :: I am not entirely happy with the direction Wikia is taking the Wikia platform, including the re-branding as "Fandom", and they don't seem to have a firm roadmap for the future. (If the truth be told, I don't pay all that much attention to Wikia outside of our wiki, but I did some reading about the new features.) It seems possible that the new Discussions feature may change quite a bit before it settles down, so it definitely seems like a good idea to take a wait-and-see attitude. -- William Ansley (talk) 14:40, January 14, 2017 (UTC)